Field
The present disclosure generally relates to verifying of documents, and more particularly to verifying an authenticity of identity documents, for example, methods, scanners and computer program products for verifying the authenticity of an identity document.
Description of the Related Art
The use of automatic systems for extracting information from identity documents, such as driver licenses and passports is increasing as the technology for extracting information progresses. One popular way is to use bar code scanners and scan a barcode provided on the identity document. This of course requires that there is a barcode on the identity document. Before the evolvement of automatic systems all extraction of information was made manually by a person reading the information and, if applicable, entering it into a data system or a Point of Sale, POS, system. This is of course time consuming and there is also a risk that errors may occur when entering the information into the system. Thus, notwithstanding the risk of errors, there is also due to inefficiency a risk for building up queues at the POS system, when performing transactions in which an identity document needs to be presented for confirming the identity of the person performing a transaction. Current systems, such as the bar scanners and more advanced scanners with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capability, focus on the identification process itself and are very expensive and/or complicated such as identity systems used at, for example, airports in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Thus, there is a need for a simple yet reliable method for efficiently verifying the authenticity of an identity document.